up here in space you're all i need
by Sunnycanary
Summary: Nagisa has always wanted to be an astronaut. [Reigisa. Oneshot. Written for Reigisa week, day 4.]


**AN: This is for Reigisa week day 4! Prompt was "Future Fish".**

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><p>Nagisa woke up in an unfamiliar room filled with the beeping and humming of machines. He sat up, craning his neck to get a good look at where he is, then realized he was wearing an orange spacesuit.<p>

Well.

The room he was in was quite small, with a bed along one wall and cupboards and shelves lining the others. Steel rungs on the wall lead up to a trapdoor on the ceiling.

It looked kind of like the inside of a rocket. Which was actually pretty cool, once he thought about it.

"I see you're finally awake." The voice jolted him out of his thoughts, and he tried to figure out where it came from. As if sensing his confusion, it spoke again. "You have an earpiece implanted in your ear."

Nagisa reached up to his ear, but it didn't really feel that different. "Wow, this is all so cool… Wait, where am I? And who even _are_ you?"

"You are currently on the _IWATOBI I_. A while ago, you agreed to help out with an experiment dealing with a person's social and psychological needs. You are to stay in this space ship for a month with no human interaction except for my voice. After one month, you will return back to Earth." The voice paused while Nagisa tried to absorb all the information. "My name is Ryugazaki Rei. I am a scientist at Samezuka, the company in charge of this experiment."

"I'm Nagisa. But I don't remember agreeing to any experiment…" He tried to think back. The name Samezuka seemed familiar to him, but he didn't know from where.

Rei coughed. "I don't think Rin-senpai exactly called it an experiment."

Nagisa's eyes widened and he realized where he had heard Samezuka from. It was the name of the company Rin worked for, and he remembered being asked to help out a couple of weeks ago.

"Oh." Nagisa looked around. "So I'm actually in outer space? I can't believe it! Wow… How come I don't remember getting here?"

"It was all part of the experiment," Rei replied, and Nagisa shrugged. As long as he wouldn't die out here, he was fine with it. And anyway, he had always wanted to be an astronaut, and now his dream had come true! Plus, his spacesuit was _orange_.

"So, Rei-chan–" Rei spluttered and scolded him for calling him such a _friendly_ nickname, which Nagisa just laughed off. "Tell me about yourself."

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><p>Talking to Rei was a <em>lot<em> more fun than Nagisa had thought. Rei's life was just so _interesting_ – well he was a _scientist_, of course his life would be interesting – and Nagisa didn't think he would ever get sick of listening to his voice.

He found out that Rei had an older brother and used to be on the high school track team, and he joined Samezuka right after he graduated from university. He seemed a lot smarter than Nagisa, who didn't even bother going to college, let alone university, and had helped open a cafe with his friends.

Nagisa was also slowly getting used to living on the space ship. He wasn't floating around, like he thought he would be, but it was probably the boots on the spacesuit he wore. He was getting used to the packets of food and sleeping on the bed without falling off. There was another part of the space ship he hadn't seen on the first day he was here. The trapdoor in the ceiling led to a small room with one small window, where he could see the stars floating in the blackness.

Nagisa loved the space ship. Finally, for once, he actually had peace! And quiet! After living in such a noisy house for most of his life, he welcomed any moment of silence he could get. And, it was _freakin' outer space!_ When he got back, he would thank Rin a million times for giving him this beautiful, beautiful experience.

Rei was always there for him. He seemed to never sleep – one time, Nagisa woke up in the middle of what he assumed was the night, and stubbed his toe. He yelped and hopped around until a quiet "Nagisa-kun? It's quite late right now, what are you doing awake?" stopped him. After that, he had asked Rei if he was a robot or something, because no matter how much caffeine and sugar he consumed, Nagisa couldn't stay awake for the whole of even _one night_. Or maybe Rei was just a light sleeper.

Most nights (he went by a clock, so his sleep schedule wouldn't be all messed up when he got back) he would go up to that window and just sit there, watching the stars go by, and talking to Rei. Sometimes he would fall asleep there and wake up with a crick in his neck.

"It's just," he tried to explain to Rei, "before I got up here into space, I knew the universe was big, but I never really _thought_ about it, y'know? I mean, I knew there were other galaxies and stars and planets and stuff, but it didn't seem as _real_ as now."

Rei hummed in agreement, and Nagisa took that as a sign to carry on.

"Up here in space, I just feel so _small_. I'm surrounded by all these stars and I'm seeing so much of the world that no one else has seen before. It reminds me of how insignificant I am to the world. I could just die out here, but it wouldn't really _do_ anything, except affect my family and friends. But the world would still spin on and everyone else would still go on with their lives."

"Yeah," Rei murmured, and Nagisa was glad he understood.

"Sometimes I wonder where I would end up if I got into a rocket and kept on flying in a straight line. What if there's another Earth out there, with another Rei-chan and another Nagisa who are in an experiment in a space ship right now?"

"The world's a big place, Nagisa-kun."

Nagisa nodded and yawned. "I'm going to sleep now. Goodnight, Rei-chan."

"Goodnight, Nagisa-kun."

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><p>About halfway through the month, Nagisa realized he was madly in love with Rei.<p>

Everything Rei said was so _interesting_. He thought he would be sick of all the scientific stuff he kept on talking about, but somehow he wasn't. Which was quite strange since Nagisa usually wasn't able to focus on these kind of super-smart-sounding topics.

But Rei was patient, and Rei was kind, and Rei explained all the fancy stuff whenever Nagisa was confused. Also, Rei laughed at all the horrible jokes Nagisa told, which was a plus.

Rei would tell him "good morning" and "goodnight" every day when he woke up and before he went to sleep. And Nagisa just loved listening to Rei talk, hearing his voice go up and down depending on what he was talking about and what mood he was in.

Rei was explaining something about the engines they used in the rocket when Nagisa blurted it out.

"Rei-chan, I think I'm in love with you." He heard Rei suck his breath in, and he knew he was probably bright red now, but he carried on. "I know we haven't even known each other for a month, but I really really like you, maybe love, even, so when I get back, do you wanna meet up? And maybe get some coffee together, or something."

There was a pause, and Nagisa was afraid Rei would turn him down and their friendship would be ruined for the rest of the trip, and oh _no there was still half a month left_, but then, "Yeah, okay. Sure."

And Nagisa could breathe again.

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><p>Nagisa could not sit still. It was the last day of the experiment, and tomorrow he would see Rei for the first time! He couldn't <em>wait<em> to show him around his favorite places, and they could eat at his cafe (his and Haru's, but the details didn't matter), and they could go to the park and feed the ducks. And then they could go to his apartment and maybe watch a movie or two or three and fall asleep on the couch together. And they could do it over and over again every day.

Rei didn't seem bothered by Nagisa's excitement, which was a relief. Sure, Nagisa would miss the space ship and outer space, but he wanted to meet Rei even more.

Nagisa was confused when Rei told him to go to sleep, but then he explained that he needed to be asleep for the experiment to finish properly. He patted the bed as he lay down on it – it would be the last time he would sleep on it, and if he was honest, he liked a lot more than his bed at home.

"G'night, Rei-chan. See you later?" Nagisa's eyes fluttered shut, and he almost missed the small chuckle from his earpiece.

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><p>Nagisa woke up in a white room on a small bed. There were tubes hanging from his arms and some sort of monitor attached to a helmet on his head.<p>

He rubbed blearily at his eyes and looked around him. The room was empty, apart from his bed and the machines.

The door on the far side of the room opened with a swish, and Nagisa widened his eyes when he recognized Rin walking in, followed by a guy with silver hair. Okay, now he was seriously confused.

"Rin-chan? Where am I? What are you doing here? Where's Rei-chan?" Now that he thought about it, his earpiece had been silent the whole time.

"Nagisa, do you remember when I asked you to help me?" He nodded. "We put you in a simulation for a month, where you were in a space ship with no human interaction."

"Wait, so going into space wasn't real? It was all a dream?" Nagisa squinted his eyes. None of this was making any sense. "Rei-chan's real, though, right? He promised me we would meet up once I got back, he promised me we could go get coffee together and watch movies and go to the park and go ice skating and to the zoo and…"

"Ryugazaki Rei was part of the simulation. He's not real." Rin's mouth was still moving, but Nagisa couldn't hear anything else he was saying. _Not real. Rei-chan's not real._

"You… You're joking, right? Tell me this is a joke. It must be a joke, Rei-chan is definitely real." By now Nagisa was on the verge of tears, because Rei was real, he _had_ to be, and anything else just didn't _make sense_.

"I'm sorry, Nagisa." Rin sighed. "He was just part of the experiment."

Nagisa slumped in his bed.

_Rei-chan's not real._

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><p>A week later, Nagisa found himself in front of his cafe. He wondered how Haru and Makoto were. He hadn't seen them in over a month, and he missed their comforting presence.<p>

He pushed open the door, smiling at the small bell jingling, and waved at Haru behind the counter.

"Hey, Haru-chan! I'm back, thanks for looking after the cafe for me."

Haru nodded, then gestured to the man standing next to him. "I got some help from Makoto's friend."

The man stretched out a hand for Nagisa to shake. The action reminded him so much of _Rei_ that he had to slap on a bigger smile to stop his current one from slipping.

"Hi, I'm Nagisa." He smiled at the man and took his hand.

"Hello, Nagisa. My name is Ryugazaki Rei."


End file.
